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Over the last few years, we’ve seen openSUSE grow into an international project consisting of a large number of volunteer contributors from around the world. These contributors have a wide range of skill sets and interests such as software development, systems engineering, artwork & marketing, in addition to more general enthusiasts. This diversity of contributors and their geographically distributed nature leads to some interesting challenges and questions for the project. For example:

How do we as a project ensure we’re listening to and addressing the needs of our contributor base?

How do we ensure openSUSE is represented and visible at important FLOSS events around the world? How do we ensure we have a good show at these events?

How do we try and attract new users, and ideally new contributors to help the project and our products grow and improve?

Today the openSUSE board invites you to submit your proposal for locations of the openSUSE Conference in 2014. Please send proposals to the openSUSE project mailing list with the subject “oSC14 location proposal”.

The openSUSE conference was hosted in Nuremberg, Germany during it’s incubation period and has experienced steady growth since it’s inception in 2009. The fourth annual event was hosted in Prague and co-located with three additional events for the first two of the four conference days. The first four conferences were mostly organized by openSUSE community members employed by SUSE. The steady growth of the openSUSE community has created the opportunity to have a conference organization lead by a team of community members not employed by SUSE. Thanks to the initiative taken by the Greek openSUSE community, affectionately known as Greekos, the conference will take place in July of 2013 in Thessaloniki, Greece. (more…)

End of January the US Congress will vote to pass two laws, the “PROTECT IP Act” (PIPA) and the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA). If these laws pass they would enable copyright holders to get court orders against websites accused of doing or facilitating copyright infringement. So far so good, the openSUSE Project is against copyright violations.

We are a community that provides free and easy access to Free and Open Source Software. We innovate, integrate, polish, document, distribute, maintain and support one of the world’s best Linux distributions. We are working together in an open, transparent and friendly manner as part of the worldwide Free and Open Source community. And in this community there is no room for copyright abuses. That however does not mean that the end justifies the means. We at openSUSE are opposed to the proposals because we depend on our users to not only be able to freely and openly contribute their code but also their opinion and other information. Why that is threatened by these proposals, you can read over at the EFF, or watch this video from Fight for the Future

We hope the decision to blackout openSUSE.org will educate people around the world about this issue that threatens the basics of the internet, will make some US based contributors, friends and users contact their representatives in congress and inspire others to join the strike.

In 2009, a set of trademark guidelines were created to help define how the community and beyond could use the openSUSE logo and related trademarks in their own products and services.Â Along with this, Novell granted powers to the openSUSE Board to be the guardians of the openSUSE trademarks.Â This included ensuring that proper usage followed the guidelines as well as giving the Board the ability to review special use cases

It also helped those who wanted written permission from the Board authorizing the use of trademarks on their products and services.Â Formal requests for such permissions were sent to permission@novell.com, and Novell would forward the request to the Board for review.

As you know, trademark protection is important because it represents the identity of an organization.Â Trademark usage also provides an important tool for the community that wishes to promote openSUSE.Â The use of the trademarks makes it easier to share and spread openSUSE works.Â Of course, regulating the appropriate usage of the trademarks is also a necessary evil to prevent abuse.

As with anything in life, time gives perspective.Â There has been sufficient time since the implementation of the first guidelines to observe real use cases where the guidelines were either effective or ineffective.Â And for the Board, this includes identifying a more responsive workflow to addressing requests for authorization of usage, as we, and others, recognize the current process as being perfectible.

The Board, along with others in the community, would like to begin a review of the current state of our trademark guidelines and identify where it can be strengthened and be more effective.Â To this end, our first step is to open an openFATE Feature request for comments.Â We invite the community and beyond to review the current guidelines and offer their input on language and past use case experiences.

While we would like comments submitted on openFATE, if you prefer, you can post your comments here or send your thoughts directly to board@opensuse.org.
A specific timeline for completion of this process has not been determined yet, but it is the intention of the Board to move forward on this topic in order to help the community at large move forward on their own projects.

As you know, Michael Loeffler has left the openSUSE Board to pursue new opportunities, we are sad to see him go and wish him well. With his departure and with the upcoming Board elections, we have a desire to see a new Chairperson selected. The election rules state that the Chairperson be appointed by Novell and yesterday Markus Rex, General Manager of Novells Open Platform Solutions, presented Alan Clark to us as the new Chairperson. (more…)